Military history of the Neo-Assyrian Empire

Assyrian Army
Assyrian soldiers, from a plate in THE HISTORY OF COSTUME by Braun & Schneider (c. 1860).
Leaders	King of Assyria
Dates of operation	911 BC – 605 BC[1]
Headquarters	Kalhu (Nimrud), Assur, Nineveh, Harran, Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad)
Active regions	Mesopotamia, parts of the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt and western Persia
Size	capable of 300,000+ men[2]
Part of	Assyrian Empire
Opponents	Babylon, Elam, Media, Egypt, Urartu, Archaic Greece, Arameans, Arabs, Scythia, Persia, Cimmeria, Mushki, Israel, Neo-Hittites

The Neo-Assyrian Empire arose in the 10th century BC. Ashurnasirpal II is credited for utilizing sound strategy in his wars of conquest. While aiming to secure defensible frontiers, he would launch raids further inland against his opponents as a means of securing economic benefit,^[3] as he did when campaigning in the Levant. The result meant that the economic prosperity of the region would fuel the Assyrian war machine.^[4]

Ashurnasirpal II was succeeded by Shalmaneser III. Although he campaigned for 31 years of his 35-year reign,^[4] he failed to achieve or equal the conquests of his predecessor,^[5] and his death led to another period of weakness in Assyrian rule.^[5]

Assyria would later recover under Tiglath-Pileser III, whose reforms once again made Assyria the most powerful force in the Near East,^[6] and transformed it into a fully fledged empire – the first of its kind. Later, under Shalmaneser V, Sargon II and Sennacherib, further Assyrian offensives occurred, although these were designed not only for conquest, but also to destroy their enemies' ability to undermine Assyrian power. As such, costly battles raged taking tolls on Assyrian manpower. Esarhaddon succeeded in taking lower Egypt and his successor, Ashurbanipal, took the southern upper half of Egypt.

However, by the end of the Ashurbanipal's reign it appears that the Assyrian Empire was falling into another period of weakness,^[7] one from which it would not escape. It appears that years of costly battles followed by constant (and almost unstoppable) rebellions meant that it was a matter of time before Assyria ran out of troops. The loss of the outer regions meant that foreign troops were gone too. By 605 BC, independent political Neo-Assyrian records vanish from history.^[8]